About a year ago, my town created a “community forum” on Facebook. This allows community members to express their opinions, discuss town issues, ask for opinions, and other things of that nature. This group was created with the best of intentions and was meant to be a helpful place. What I have seen in it over the past year has blown my mind, upset me at times, and has caused me to slowly lose my faith in humanity.
There have been countless posts and comments filled with racism, hatred, and just flat out rudeness; the majority of these posts have been created by adults, by parents; people who are supposed to be role models to those of the younger generations and who should be setting examples. When people my age have stepped in to try to show these people that how they are acting and some of the things they are saying is not only wrong, but also petty and ridiculous, we have been shut down due to the fact that we are “kids.” So that means “we don’t know anything.” I do not believe that just because these people are older than us they're automatically right. Our opinions should be valued just as much as theirs. I am not any less of a person than they are. As one of my fellow peers put it, “Yes, I am a student and there are many things that I have yet to learn. However, it seems that even as a young person, I can compose myself on the Internet.” She also makes a point of saying how it may be because our generation was born into this generation of the internet and how to practice internet etiquette—but that does not mean that it can’t be learned.
People always say how awful kids and teens are to each other on the Internet. Honestly, I have seen more terrible things being said from one adult to another than I have from a kid to a kid. I’ve even seen some adults attack a few of the other people in the group. I see adults in the forum jumping each other’s throats, taking things out of context, being unable to let things go, attacking people, and, quite frankly, just acting childish. Like I said, at first a lot of these things were upsetting to see. But then, I realized: I guess these people have nothing better to do than to sit around on their computers all day; must be a sad life. I’m glad I have better things to do with my time.
This forum was supposed to be a helpful place to bring the people of a town together. Instead, it has created pathetic drama that I cannot even wrap my head around. I do not blame the creator of the group; this is something that is out of their control. I blame the people who choose to continue to act in this foolish way. I am not saying that every single person in the group acts poorly, because that is not true. There are plenty of people who use the group appropriately, to help others, give advice, advertise their business, or give recommendations. I enjoy seeing positive things in the group; that is what it should be about. Of course, there is going to be conflict occasionally—that is unavoidable—but it’s in the way that you handle it. We need to stop hating on local businesses for petty reasons (and then complaining that everything always closes down and businesses never last—I wonder why), respect each other’s opinions, disagree in a respectful manner, and stop attacking and ganging up on each other. These sound like things you would say to elementary school students; but no, I am actually talking about full-fledged adults, people who should know better than to act this way.
The next time you wonder why kids can be so cruel to each other, think about this: who do you think they learned that from? As another one of my peers put it, “Let’s all grow up and not start fights on an Internet post like we are supposed to be teaching children not to do.” Your kids are watching and learning from you; act the way that you’d want them to act.
